What is this "notorious problem" with the VIA 686B southbridge and the SBlive?

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It was just that my KT7-RAID was freezing in windows and I thought it might be related to the Southbridge info. I narrowed the problem down to a Windows / Adaptec driver conflict. Windows crashing again? So whats new?

Is it locking up as in siezing for a period then working normally and then apparently locking up again? If it is, a trip to the darkside may cure your ills. Squeeky from OCN pointed out a fix for the KT7A-RAID to another OCN forum member.

It just locks up permanently. I could be playing a game, I could be in windows. It could happen anytime - after 5 mins after startup or 2 hours after startup. No idea what is it but it started happening after I had installed lots of different types of DVD drivers and software needed for DVD DIVX ripping.

I still haven't worked out what it was - I tried to uninstall everything but ended up corrupted the registry which required a repair from the Win98SE installation disk.

The machine is still very flakey, but I've decided that theres nothing I can do other than Nuke C:, reinstall and these Norton Ghost the drive for when it happens again. Thats windows for you.

There we go blaming Windows for hardware issues again. If you had stable and compatible hardware, you wouldn't have any of these problems. Your problems are VIA/Abit related and have nothing at all to do with Windows. I'm no Bill Gates fan, but give me a break here.

I'm still running the same initial Windows 98 OEM install that I loaded in March of 1999. I've changed the motherboard, went through 1 PCI and 3 AGP cards (an ATI followed by a GeForce 256 and a GeForce2 GTS), 3 sound cards including the infamous SMLive!, 3 CPUs, 2 hard drives, and 2 modems all while running overclocked.

Sure I've loaded all the Windows recommended upgrades, but the system never crashes and has never had to be reinstalled or needed any kind of registry surgery. It's still running solid as a rock with the FSB @ 142 MHz and the AGP clock screaming along at 95 MHz.

Yeah, I think you're right up to a certain point but the problems aren't Abit/VIA related. I had the same sort of crappy problems with my Wintel/Asus system. The problem is that software / hardware vendors don't seem to write drivers / software "by the book"

I install and uninstall so much crap (Zdnet, games, trial programs, demos, magazine cover CDs) that even when I use uninstall or the extremely lame Add/Remove, remnants of crap still get left in my machine. This just leads to the only solution possible - nuke C:

Why should have I have to remove registry settings manually? Why should I have to search for corrupted run32.dll, inf files, aspi and everything else?

I've probably spend thousands of pounds on hardware and software over the years. If MS had built a decent operating system in the first place, you wouldn't have 3rd party vendors writing ****ty drivers and software that produces conflicts left right and centre.

Windows is fundamentally crap. People say its good only because they haven't have the opportunity (the MS monopoly has seen to that) of using any any OS, and no other company (due to MS's dominance) has had the chance to develop a decent OS. ****, Microsoft having been f***ing about with OSes since 1980 and they still can't get it right.

The fact is they will NEVER get it right, because its not in their interests to do so. There will always be a Win2002, 2004, 2006 round the corner because MS WANTS you to buy the new OS to correct the (deliberate?) flaws (which shouldn't have been there in the first place) in the previous versions.

RiscOS - now that was a decent OS. In ROM too - took less than 1 second to load and rock solid stability. Thats something which MS could only dream of. Not that they wouldn't want stability of course, no, course not, that would affect sales, rant rant rant.....

Stability or features? Ideally both, but if its one over the other, f**king hell, stability everytime.